Import Export Business

This Import Export Business blog is dedicated to providing you with news, information and resources about the business of international trade. You will find the information useful to both business owners who wish to begin exporting or expand their export markets and new entrepreneurs seeking the basics of how to get started.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

In the last post about using international business emailmarketing, we addressed the mistakes that many (if not most)people make when attempting to use email for marketing bothdomestically or internationally.

In this post, we will address international business emailsolutions to help you get the most from your email marketingefforts.

International Business Email Solution 1.

Format your email message to look as professional as possible.

One of the first things you can do is begin saving the emailsthat you receive which impress you the most as appearing tobe from a professional.

Try to keep your email lines to 63 characters per line or less.Below is a simple grid you can copy and paste into your emailto use as a guide (just be sure to take it out of the emailbefore you send it - yes, I have made that mistake):123456789012345678901234567890123..out to 63 numbers.....

You may wish to cut it off at 60 characters, as some emailprograms on the receiving end may cut off the line at 60 anddrop the last word(s) down to the next line.

If you speak a different language from that of your intendedemail recipient - try to get a friend, library employee orcollege student who speaks their language to review your email.

Times and business are changing, but English still stands outas the language of choice for doing business worldwide, so ifyou have a fairly good command of English and not therecipient's native language, try converting your message toEnglish.

International Business Email Solution 2.

Use a subject line that identifies your purpose for contactingthe recipient. Something simple like: About Your Request for Wood Flooring Prices for Import

Once you have established communications with a potentialbuyer/seller, put your name in the subject line, like this:From Ron Coble - Coble InternationalorFrom Ron Coble - About Your Request for Quote.

DO NOT PUT ALL OF YOUR SUBJECT LINE OR YOUR MESSAGE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

Using all capital letters in email etiquette is equal toSHOUTING at someone - this applies to both your subjectline and the body of your email.

And last but not least on this solution, do not use anyof the following in your subject line:

INVESTMENT - URGENT - PERSONAL - CONFIDENTIAL - EMERGENCY

The are common words that many spam filters will place inthe junk email file because they are some of the mostcommonly used words from spamming scamsters trying tolure you into believing you will get a percentage of thehundreds of millions of dollars that their dear deceasedfather, brother, uncle or other relative just happened tostash away while they were in some government job orhigh paying position. And now they need you to help themget the money out of the country. Oh yeah, and I havea bridge in New York I want to sell you too.

International Business Email Solution 3.

Once you have your email formatted and looking asprofessional and business like as possible. Take itover to the following web site and use their FREE onlineform to run a spam check on your email before you send it:

You will get a report back (in seconds, perhaps a few minutesif volume is heavy) showing you how bad or good your emailis, from a spam-detector's programming. The report youreceive may be free but it is a full report that will includethe corrections that you should make, in order to keep youremail out of the junk folders.

It will NOT, of course, actually comment on WHAT (orhow good) you write, first, it is not quite that smart yetand second, the actual content of your email is YOUR business.

International Business Email Solution 4.

Stop using a free email account to send your business email.

If you are serious about success in your international ordomestic business, you are going to have a thing called"business expenses". One of those expenses (if you are reallyserious about succeeding) needs to be a "REAL" email account.

If you have a yahoo, hotmail, gmail or other freebie emailaccount - keep it for testing purposes to send your spamchecked email to so you may see if it gets filtered out.

You may also continue to use your freebie email accounts tosee what you email looks like when it is received. Does itshow up unformatted from what you sent it? Do the end ofsentences cut off and break down to the next line?

Remember that your email is a reflection of you and MANYbusiness people have a very low opinion of emails receivedwith a yahoo or hotmail address on them!

If you are able to get your email through the perils ofemail filters and into the intended recipient's mail box,now you have to overcome the "EYEBALL" filter.

What exactly is the "EYEBALL" filter? It is the fractionof a second opportunity your email gets when "busy"recipient scans his or her email.

Now before your email even reaches the "EYEBALL" filter,the recipient may have already added yahoo, hotmail,gmail or other freebie emails to their email filteringbecause they feel if someone is not willing to invest$35 a year to have their own web site email address,and that freebie email sender is really notto serious about their business.

The business email solution for this problem can befound in the form of getting your own web based emailaccount.

For just $35.00 a year you get a web based emailaccount that gives you UNLIMITED email accounts, yourown domain name and space for a web site that will makeyour business stand out to the "EYEBALL" filteras being much more trustworthy than a yahoo, hotmailor other freebie email domain.

You can take your business email to a professionallevel for just $35 a year by setting up your ownweb based email domain and beginning to send andreceive your email from your own domain name.

International Business Email Solution 5.

Last, but certainly one of the most important business emailsolutions is a two-fold solution.

This email solution incorporates not only a means to help youget your company and products on display to the world butprevents your email from still another spam trap that couldcause it to never be seen by the intended recipient.

You should NEVER send photographs or attached files to someone"until" you obtain their permission to do so.

There are emails I receive from my friends and even mydaughter that I will delete without opening. Why?

Virus programs and trojan horse virus programs can be embeddedin the attachment and I have read they may even be embedded insome images if you open them.

The business solution for this is to have your own web site.

Let me say right up front that a web site does not have to beexpensive. I am going to point you to a service that can hostyour basic web site and provide you a free domain name for lessthan $35.00 a year.

You DO NOT need to have programming skills to build a web site.The service I am suggesting below (and many others) have theirown web site building program available within their hostingfor FREE. In many instances it is as easy as point and click.

You DO NOT need a lot of flashy moving images and stuff thattakes time to load for someone who might be on a dial upconnection which 46% of the world's populations still is.

You DO NEED (at a minimum) a simple, NO FRILLS web site where you display your company's products and services, provide contact information, prices (if your industry is too competitive to display prices, then have a form they can requesta quote on), information about your business, etc..

Your simple, NO FRILLS web site becomes your storefront tothe WORLD. Your web site is available to any potentialcustomer, importer, client worldwide 24 hours a day, 7days a week, 365 days a year.

Once you have your web site set up, you can send links toyour web site and specific pages for your email recipientsto visit by merely clicking a link.

By sending links in an email, you email has a MUCH BETTERchance of getting through ALL the levels of filters thatmight otherwise prevent it from ever being viewed by theintended recipient.

With your own web site comes your OWN EMAIL ADDRESS withYOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME in the from area of the email (infact this recommended service gives you the ability toset up UNLIMITED email addresses - YES, that is UNLIMITED).

All of those large attachments and photographs describingand displaying your products may now be posted to yourweb site for everyone worldwide to see (who wantto see them).

No longer will you be forcing some poor person whohas to pay by the minute phone charges to ask their ISPto have your email deleted from the server level becauseit is taking too much time to download. Yes, it happensand I have done it when I was still on dial up.

Here is a direct link to the very highly regarded webhosting company our research has discovered has suchgreat service packages - yes, it is the same link asabove - the same service has both Email hosting andvery low cost web site hosting packages:Extremely Low Cost Business Email/Web Site Hosting

The bottom line on successful international marketinginvolves the successful use of Email and having a website.

Quite frankly, if you are not using Email properly,your chances for success in this business are verylimited. And more importantly, if you do not bringyour business into the 21st century with a web sitethat displays your company's products or services,your competition will leave you in their dust.

You may research other email or web site hostingservices on your own and I say more power to you,but at some point, stop researching and start takingaction.

You can save yourself some valuable time by followingbecause there have been many hours put into it andthe above service is the best that we have found.

Invest $35.00 into you and your business bygetting a "real" email address and a web site foryour international business.If you are not willing to invest a few dollars a year in your business to project amore professional image,then you are not serious about success for your business in international trade and should not expect anyone elseto take you seriously.This is the best advice that has been shared in this blog yet that has the best potential for helping you and your business achieve and maximize your success in the Import Export business.Hopefully you will act on it. Do it TODAY!

Ron CobleCoble International Business Marketing Serviceshttp://www.importexporthelp.com

About Me

Started Coble International in 1988 with the express purpose of providing Export Import marketing assistance to manufacturers and providing B2B products and services to the global B2B community. Our business expanded exponentially in the late 1990's when we launched our website ImportExportHelp.com. The Internet was and continues to be the best marketing tool for ALL businesses, anywhere in the world. The Import Export business training courses we once offered have been used by community colleges, busineses and individuals around the world and our B2B marketing databases have been used by companies in 70 countries to expand their markets.